There is something a bit odd going on in Estonia and across the web — it’s based on an argument over rights to the IP associated with the FabSecure platform — a solution to secure copyright issues with 3D printing. I’m sure the irony is not lost on you.
On Tuesday (21st January) Fabulonia put out a press release — via PR Web — claiming that it had been granted a preliminary injunction against Secure3D, who it claimed was infringing its IP. I had noted the link, as a source for an article based on it and some email and comment shenanigans last week at 3DPI, but going back to it today — it no longer exists! Traces of it do, including a tweet from Fabulonia (see right) on the day and the same story cut and paste on a handful of news websites (BizWireExpress, ConsumerElectronicsNet and 3ders etc). Other than that, as far as I can tell, it’s vanished! I’ll say upfront: I have no final resolution to offer with regards to what is going on. But here’s what I do know:
Fabulonia first came to our attention last February when it presented its concept at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
The company subsequently launched the FabSecure platform in September, as covered by Juho, who even then, was a tad dubious.
And then, on 6th January, Davide covered a seemingly new start-up called Secured3D. He had spoken with John Dogru, Secured3D’s co-founder. Admittedly, at the time, the name rang a bell, but I didn’t put two and two together, not even with the Estonian connection. And then CES happened, so I didn’t give it a second thought — until last week
After Davide’s article went live, a comment appeared from one Dennis Alvare, which it has been suggested, is an alias for Fabulonia’s CEO Kimmo Isbjornssund. It challenged the authenticity of Secured 3D, hinted at court battles and contained some choice language. Another comment followed from the opposing side, this one personal, prejudiced and highly offensive, it was removed immediately. Emails also started arriving at 3DPI, indicating ongoing legal activities and legal letters pointed at us too. We took the decision to remove any comments from both sides until we could take legal advice ourselves and identify a resolution.
Needless to say, there is not a little venom in the mix here. But simply put, it seems that Kimmo Isbjörnssund, an ex-Nokia employee and currently in charge at Fabulonia, and John Dogru, Chief Architect at Secured3D are the main protagonists in this story. They both worked on the development of the original idea for the ‘copyright solution’, but have since gone their separate ways, while both claiming the IP is theirs.
According to the press release that went out on Tuesday, the courts, at least for now, found in favour of Fabulonia with a ‘preliminary injunction in the Harju County Court in Tallinn, Estonia against Secured 3D.’
But why has the original PR about that since vanished? There is nothing current on the Fabulonia website, indeed, it doesn’t look as if anyone has worked on that since February of last year. Meanwhile the new Secured3D website is looking more current and is promoting the Makerbot / Thingiverse link. I wonder how long that will last?
The mystery continues. I shall try and dig a little deeper ….
Beyond Ironic – more ironically, we hosted a workshop with a bunch of well know 3DP designer makers & artists in London on Tuesday of this week, which was sponsored by the UK Intellectual Property Office (the government body responsible for UK copyright & Patent laws). The focus of the workshop was IP protection in a 3DP world. The startling revelation to emerge is that a lot of designer makers & artists aren’t that bothered about protecting their IP, they are however petrified about infringing the work of others. Makes this story even more ironic don’t you think. We don’t need more IP protection, we need IP clarity.
Are they even funded? Now who’s going want to fund two companies fighting over IP rights? Shouldn’t the first company own the IP if they both worked for the first company?